Grazed from Network Computing.  Author: Editorial Staff.

In an effort to address some of the most pressing cloud computing challenges and requirements its members have identified, the Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA) has released five new usage models, which are available for download now.

These new usage models are designed to help better manage security and infrastructure issues across cloud computing applications, while at the same time identifying the specific innovations and standards that are required for widespread adoption of cloud services, says Allyson Klein, ODCA representative and a director with Intel Corp.

“Members are committed to using usage models to guide their planning and purchasing of cloud services for internal cloud deployments, as well as public cloud services.” she says. “Vendors can utilize the usage models to help integrate requirements into future solution delivery plans.”…

Grazed from InfoWorld.  Author: Simon Phipps.

Cloud computing has been described by some of the more radical thinkers as a profound challenge to the heart of software freedom [1]. There’s some justification to this accusation.

First, you need more than your software’s source code to take your cloud activity into your own hands. Although open source gives you the freedom to use, study, modify, and distribute the software, it doesn’t necessarily allow the use of the place it runs or the APIs needed to access that place. As such, considering your software-freedom-derived business flexibility [2] in the area of cloud computing is more complex than for in-house desktop or server solutions…

Grazed from InfoWorld.  Author: David Linthicum.

The concept of big data is simple, as most good ideas are. Big data gives us the ability to use commodity computing to process distributed queries across multiple data sets and return result sets in record time. Cloud computing provides the underlying engine, typically through the use of Hadoop. Because these commodity server instances can be rented as needed, big data becomes affordable for most enterprises.

We always make discoveries as we use new technology, both good and bad. In the case of big data, the path to success will come with key lessons. But given the novelty of big data in real-world deployments, there are major questions for which we don’t yet have answers — so be extra careful in these areas…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Hitachi, Ltd. and Microsoft Japan Co., Ltd. today announced that they collaboratively provide global cloud solutions by combination of Hitachi Cloud Computing Solutions and Microsoft(R) global data center. Hitachi cloud computing solution will be enhanced by this collaboration in order to satisfy Japanese customer’s broad needs including globalization.

As usage of cloud computing is rapidly expanded in enterprise IT systems, cloud computing is evolving to be used in cooperation with mission critical system (mainly in form of hybrid cloud), while cloud computing conventionally has been used in a limited part of enterprise information system (mainly in form of public cloud and private cloud)…

Grazed from RetailWeek.  Author: Editorial Staff.

Cloud computing uses remote computers to host software and store data, which can then be accessed via the internet. It allows businesses to access IT resources, such as data storage, without having to buy expensive equipment.

“The use of cloud computing by the business world is accelerating” says Anthony Lee, a partner in the media and technology group at law firm Fladgate. “However, there are some inevitable risks which businesses need to think about.”

A business looking at cloud-based data storage must know where the data is, that it is secure and that it can be easily retrieved…

Grazed from YouTube.  Author: Microsoft

Some IT providers are talking cloud, but still living in a virt-based world. See why Microsoft offers a private cloud solution that is built for the future and ready now. http://aka.ms/vmltd

 

Grazed from IT Web.  Author: Editorial Staff.

First, "broad network access." Access to resources in the cloud is available over multiple device types. This not only includes the most common devices (laptops, workstations, etc.) but also this includes mobile phones, thin clients and so on. Contrast "broad network access" with access to compute and network resources during the mainframe era. Compute resources forty years ago were scarce and costly. Usage was limited based on priority and criticality of workloads in order to conserve those resources.

Similarly, network resources were also scarce. Internet Protocol (IP) based networks were not in prevalent usage back then, consequently high-bandwidth, low-latency networks did not exist. Over time costs associated with the network (like costs associated with computing and storage) have decreased due to manufacturing scalability and commoditization of associated technologies. As network bandwidth has increased, network access and scalability has increased accordingly. "Broad network access" can be seen both as a trait of cloud computing and as an enabler…

Grazed from Smart Data Collective.  Author: Paul Barsch.

Grazed from Wired News.  Author: Caleb Garling.

Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing division of the online retail giant, introduced Amazon CloudSearch today, which lets companies add search functionality to applications hosted in AWS’s cloud environments.

AWS is a kind of virtual data center for companies that don’t want to boot up and configure their own servers. Companies pay for the computing resources they need and can add and remove systems very quickly. It’s used by Samsung, Farmers Insurance and Netflix, to name a few…

Grazed from Sys Con Media.  Author: Maureen O’Gara.

OpenStack announced Thursday that, as expected, it’s moving to a foundation governance model with a published framework that’s supposed to limit Rackspace’s dominance of the nascent open source cloud platform.

OpenStack is an alternative to Amazon. Citrix started a competing effort to OpenStack last week around its open source CloudStack, which unlike OpenStack uses Amazon APIs. These APIs are supposed to make Amazon, which now also has the open source Eucalyptus in its corner, the de facto standard…